If the NFL handed out trophies for preseason success, the Seattle Seahawks and rookie third-round selection Russell Wilson would have been given one for best team.
Unfortunately they don’t and any success teams desire to achieve has to be garnered over the course of a grueling 16-game regular season.
Wilson and the Seahawks learned that the hard way as they fell 20-16 to the Arizona Cardinals in a tightly contested road game. It wasn’t for a lack of opportunities or for any fault of the officials because the Seahawks had ample chances late in the game including six plays in the redzone to score a touchdown and had the officials give them two first downs and an extra timeout on that final drive when the outcome hung in the balance.
The problem was Wilson and the Hawks were unable to get anything done. The defense played excellent, holding the Cardinals to 43 rushing yards and 210 passing yards. In the second half, the Seahawks defense created 6 straight three-and-outs including one great interception by cornerback Richard Sherman that gave the Seahawks offense the ball inside the 35-yard line of the Cardinals.
Without two great returns from Leon Washington, the Seahawks probably would have lost this game 27-3. The offense only crossed the 50 twice on their own — on the first and last drives of the game. You won’t win games in the NFL, no matter how good your defense and special teams are, when your offense is that inept.
To be blunt and matter-of-fact, Wilson looked like a rookie playing his first NFL game. The offense was vanilla, too many three-and-outs, too many sacks and penalties and too many poor throws when time was actually there to throw the ball down field.
Balls sailed on Wilson, he threw WR screens behind the line of scrimmage resulting in one turnover and three eventual points for the Cardinals and he ran around far too much.
The Seahawks don’t have to accept this effort. They don’t have to settle for an offense that only netted 254 total yards and 139 net passing yards. They have a quarterback on their roster that has actually had success in regular season NFL games.
It’s time for head coach Pete Carroll to turn to Matt Flynn for week two’s contest versus the Dallas Cowboys as the starter. Give the guy you signed to a 3-year, $25 million deal to be your starting quarterback a chance. Now. Because if you don’t give him a chance now and you allow Wilson to continue as the starter after a performance like this, the only time you can turn to Flynn is if Wilson gets hurt.
Carroll named Wilson the starter for Week 1. That’s all that was ever announced, week 1. Carroll can easily name Flynn the starter for week 2 under the guise of trying to compare the two with a full game for each.
Give Flynn a shot. See what he can do and then compare his game with Wilson’s game and name a starter for the rest of the season as long as health remains a constant.
Because if you don’t do it now, when are you going to do it? This is a team built to win now, it’s not a time to let a rookie QB go through his growing pains. Especially not when you have a QB on your roster who can win NFL games right now.
Sports, film and life 
pete carroll need i say more, this guy can’t pick his nose right nevermind a qb. you pay handsomley to get flynn and then you throw a rookie out there wilson is good just not ready. Flynn would have had that touchdown late in the game, the plat calling was embarassing 4 heaves to the corners, i mean cmon get creative.
please feel free to comment on my suggestions
Pete Carroll i hope has grown up because he has a very talented team, unser any coach these guys should be 10 and 6 like breaking sticks. Carroll can ruin a team i hope it doesnt happen here we in seattle deserve a winner and so does paul allen
I an fortunate i am a pats fam and live in seattle I can root for both teams except this year when they meet out here
Flynn should have been the starter, then you dont have any contraversy but pete carroll doesnt get it, now you have contraversey when u shouldnt, if he pulls wilson he hurts his confidence, he put in Flynn now they are competitors not team mates, pete really screwed the pooch on the wilson call starting
I could coach this team it has as much talent as Philly, I also think seattles defense if you dont get them to the superbowl this year or next u wasted a very talented group, they kept that game tight, and the coach lost it. these types of losses are worse than blowouts, because you have wasted talent Pete better stop wasting our talent
Thanks for the comments. I don’t think it’s necessarily Pete Carroll’s fault. I think he has done a very admirable job turning this franchise around along with GM John Schneider. With the way the QB competition went, you could have honestly given the job to either guy but Flynn sitting out week 3 certainly didn’t help his cause and Carroll decided to go with the guy who really performed extraordinary in the preseason.
But he has a chance now to make it right. There’s no reason not to give Flynn a REAL shot. And I capitalize that because it really takes a full game with starters (if not multiple games) to truly assess a player’s play.
He never named Wilson the starter for the entire season. He was named the week 1 starter. I remember seeing it scrolling along the bottom line of ESPN: “Seahawks name QB Russell Wilson starter for week 1” not “Seahawks name Russell Wilson their starting quarterback.” There’s a difference and Carroll can use that explanation while telling the media that Matt Flynn will start against the Cowboys.
Look, this isn’t a monologue against Wilson as a successful starting QB at the NFL level. I think Wilson will eventually be very good but I don’t think that will be this season and when you have a team that is as talented as the Seahawks have right now, a team that is ready to win now, you can’t blow a full calendar year in order to allow a rookie QB to go through his growing pains. Football is a lot different than baseball, everything is shorter — careers, contracts and seasons. You just can’t afford to burn a year when you have a team that is defensively, special teams and running game wise ready to win. You throw in a QB that has NFL experience and can perform up to snuff as a passer, and you have an elite football team RIGHT NOW.
Russell Wilson has no business being the starting QB for the Seattle Seahawks, period!! This team was 7-9. Not 2-14. Not 4-12. You don’t start a rookie quarterback when you have high expectations for a division title or playoff spot. Carroll wants so bad to be right all the time that he can’t get out of his own way when it comes to the quarterback. This is the same guy that told us that Charlie Whitehurst and Tavaris Jackson was good. We finally get a quarterback to get us over the hump and what does Carroll do, he starts a rookie with no NFL experience. Who does that? He should have named Flynn the starter for the season after the 2nd preseason game 2. I think he wanted Wilson to win the job. Flynn did nothing to lose the job at all. What the hell did you bring Flynn here for? To hold a clip board? To many people are drinking that Russell Wilson preseason Kool-Aid. It was preseason! So he ran around a little bit. He threw a couple of jump balls to Edwards. Those weren’t real games. They didn’t count. We saw what Flynn can do in a real game. Furthermore, Flynn comes out of the Green Bay family. How has their track record been with quarterbacks? But you’re going to give the keys to your offense to a 5’10 kid who has never played under real fire in the NFL. A team that is ready to challenge now. I guess that defense, fans and everyone else will just have to wait for Russell Wilson to get it together huh. I think not!!!! Makes absolutely no sense and I am pissed!! But I know how it’s going to end. Carroll will be stubborn and not make the change. Cowboys are next and Rob Ryan is licking his chops. Then comes Green Bay. It will get ugly fast. If this team ends the season under .500 and misses the playoffs, Carroll should be fired! He has wasted enough of Paul Allen’s money on quarterbacks. Coach has done some good things for this team but you can’t win without a quarterback and he just can’t get it right. This will be a wasted season. It amazes me how after a couple of preseason games, Flynn is now a bum. He deserved so much better.
Couldn’t have said it any better Derwin. It’s really a monumental decision if he in fact has settled on Wilson as the starter for the entire season (which it looks like he has as we head into wk 2). Apparently all the “competition will be on-going” talk was nonsense and the fact that he was named the wk 1 starter was just a trivial assertion. I think this team can still win 10 games no matter who is at QB, BUT it needs to button down the hatches ASAP because it’s going to get late real early here after we squandered that game to Arizona. The defense can’t afford anymore mistakes like that late TD drive and the offensive line better get its shit together. Period. I won’t stand for missing the playoffs this year. I’m still holding out hope that the team will turn to Flynn at some point here.